by Ian Punnett

 

Fat is the new thin

We are so last year 

And a new understanding for the expression "a wrinkle in time . . ." 

Last week a woman called to tell me that “toasted food” was responsible for any number of different health problems and I tried to be a good sport about that lecture but from the get-go I wasn’t interested.  I use a bowl a sugary cereal like that as a self-rewarding treat a couple of times a week and I’m just not ready to give that up.

I wish I had had this study in my pocket last week when she called:

(Breitbart.com)

Health experts have long warned of the risk of obesity, but a new ****anese study warns that being very skinny is even more dangerous, and that slightly chubby people live longer.

People who are a little overweight at age 40 live six to seven years longer than very thin people, whose average life expectancy was shorter by some five years than that of obese people, the study found.

"We found skinny people run the highest risk," said an associate professor at Tohoku University's Graduate School of Medicine who worked on the long-term study of middle-aged and elderly people.

"We had expected thin people would show the shortest life expectancy but didn't expect the difference to be this large," he told AFP by telephone.

"There had been an argument that thin people's lives are short because many of them are sick or smoke. But the difference was almost unchanged even when we eliminated these factors," Kuriyama said.

Main reasons for the shorter lifespans of skinny people were believed to include their heightened vulnerability to diseases such as pneumonia and the fragility of their blood vessels, he said.

So there!  Maybe “toasted foods” are this huge, silent killer but they help keep me just a few pounds overweight so, really, they’re like a health food. 

Which is not to say that fast food can’t kill you:

(CBS 4) A Denver police officer has been suspended after allegedly brandishing his gun at a McDonald's restaurant in Aurora after his order took too long to fill.

So, take that algae eaters.  My Cocoa Krispies are keeping me alive!  Let’s keep the algae where it belongs--in our gas tanks:

(Physorg.com) Scientists in Canada and India are proposing a surprising new solution to the global energy crisis —“milking” oil from the tiny, single-cell algae known as diatoms, renowned for their intricate, beautifully sculpted shells that resemble fine lacework. Their report appears online in the current issue of the ACS’ bi-monthly journal Industrial Engineering & Chemical Research.

“We propose ways of harvesting oil from diatoms, using biochemical engineering and also a new solar panel approach that utilizes genetically modifiable aspects of diatom biology, offering the prospect of “milking” diatoms for sustainable energy by altering them to actively secrete oil products,” the scientists say. “Secretion by and milking of diatoms may provide a way around the puzzle of how to make algae that both grow quickly and have a very high oil content.”

And where did you hear that first?  Right here on this show back in January.

We’ve talked about it a couple of times, actually.  Long before the mainstream media was on it, you knew that OPEC is terrified of pond s****.

And if that isn’t cool enough for you . . . 

(Yahoo.com) Pardon the cliche, but it's one of the holiest of Holy Grails of technology: Wireless power. And while early lab experiments have been able to "beam" electricity a few feet to power a light bulb, the day when our laptops and cell phones can charge without having to plug them in to a wall socket still seems decades in the future.

Nokia, however, has taken another baby step in that direction with the invention of a cell phone that recharges itself using a unique system: It harvests ambient radio waves from the air, and turns that energy into usable power. Enough, at least, to keep a cell phone from running out of juice.

Finally, a use for all those other radio stations that don’t carry my show!  Now, they’ll actualy serve a purpose.

(Physorg.com) An Australian stroke victim paralysed for more than 20 years has walked again thanks to anti-wrinkle drug botox, in a case hailed as extraordinary by his medical team.

Russell McPhee, 49, was confined to a wheelchair after suffering a severe stroke 23 years ago that left him so disabled that doctors initially told him he would never leave hospital.

But after being injected with botox, McPhee can walk around his home unaided and travel up to 100 metres (330 feet) using a walking stick.

"I thought I was going to die in a wheelchair," McPhee told AFP.

Botox, or botulinum toxin, blocks the nerve signals which tell muscles to contract, flattening wrinkles when used on the face. But it can also help patients left immobile by brain injuries, multiple sclerosis, spinal problems or strokes.

"You usually see results in someone who has recently had a stroke but we've never has such a good response from someone so far down the track (decades after a stroke)," his doctor said.

"The botox provided the kickstart needed to start the treatment."

If Botox can help this guy walk then Melanie Griffith should be able to fly . . .